"Yesterday morning I put the first spade in the ground on the country’s biggest new road project – the transformation of the A14 from Cambridge to Huntingdon, including a bypass around Huntingdon.

This £1.5 billion scheme will upgrade 21 miles of the A14 to three lanes in each direction, cut 20 minutes off journeys and reduce local congestion.

The start of work comes days after the Chancellor used the Autumn Statement to announce massive new local road investment, and it is more proof that the Government is serious about overhauling Britain’s infrastructure.

The A14 is one of the most important east-to-west routes in the country. It connects businesses, communities and families across Cambridgeshire. And it is also a vital corridor for international freight.

The Port of Felixstowe alone sends over 2 million shipping containers along the A14 every year, with heavy lorries making up a quarter of all traffic on the road.

Yet the demand we’re placing on the A14 is taking an increasing toll on both drivers and local residents.

In the evening commute between Cambridge and Huntingdon, it can take over an hour to travel just 17 miles. Towns and villages such as Godmanchester and Fenstanton suffer from traffic caused by drivers trying to avoid jams. And the road’s safety record isn’t good enough.

NEW ROAD: Work has started on the A14 upgrade

So the existing 40-year-old A14 is no longer fit for purpose. Thanks to the work we’ve started, in just four years’ time it will be possible to drive between Huntingdon to Cambridge confident of arriving on time.

The first half of the journey will take place on a far quieter road – thanks to the new Huntingdon bypass taking traffic from the west around the town, not through it. And the remaining half of the journey will be on a three-lane carriageway with capacity to serve commuters, long distance motorists and freight from the east coast ports.

And this investment will benefit all of Cambridgeshire, not just drivers.

By decreasing journey times and cutting congestion, we’ll make Cambridgeshire an even better place to live and work – adding over a billion pounds a year to the local economy. The new road will help create up to 8,000 new jobs at the Alconbury Weald enterprise zone, and support 10,000 new homes at Northstowe, just outside Cambridge.

The A14 upgrade is such a big project that we’ve already opened a new Highways College in West Anglia to give 130 people the skills we need to get the road built. When the job is done, they’ll also have the qualifications and experience to work on many of the other projects in our £15 billion national road investment plan.

Last Wednesday in the Autumn Statement, the Chancellor announced that we will build an Oxford to Cambridge Expressway. He provided an extra £27 million to get this project going as quickly as possible.

Work will start first on the section between Caxton Gibbet and the Black Cat Roundabout, and I have also published some options for completing the route between Milton Keynes and Oxford.

Meanwhile, we are developing plans to reinstate the railway that until 1967 ran from Cambridge to Oxford. The Autumn Statement provided over £100 million for work to start on the western end of the line.

Roads matter to us all – they allow us to drive to work, to see friends and family, and allow shops to keep their shelves stocked. So by investing in our roads, we’re building a country that works for everyone.

I am thrilled that the long-overdue project to upgrade the A14 has started. Now my focus will be to get the job done and the road open, for everyone in Cambridgeshire."